Symposium Insights

The future of fintech

June 2025

If your teenager can split a $250 concert ticket into four easy payments at checkout,
they don’t care whether it’s Klarna, Amazon, or Bank of America making it happen.
They care that it works—seamlessly, instantly, and without friction.

That’s the future of fintech, according to a panel of industry experts at the 2025
Payments & Banking Symposium. The next generation of consumers will choose
financial services based on experience, not brand.

Major consumer platforms have already earned user trust and attention. They’re
embedding financial services into the purchase journey—not as a separate destination,
but as a natural extension of what customers are already doing.

As one speaker explained: “Young consumers won’t distinguish between providers. The
best user experience will win.”

And that’s exactly the point: the provider who delivers the smoothest, most relevant
experience becomes invisible to the consumer—but indispensable in the value chain.
Financial tools are no longer about where you bank; they’re about how money moves in
your life.

Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) adoption highlights this shift. It’s not just about
flexibility—it’s about control. As one panelist noted, BNPL is “basically a free charge
card” for younger users who are managing cash flow without turning to high-interest
credit cards.

Behind the scenes, however, a deeper contest is underway. “The real battle,” one
speaker noted, “is over who owns the relationship—and with it, the data.” Even if
consumers aren’t consciously choosing based on provider, the brands that integrate
financial services most seamlessly are the ones that will shape their expectations,
collect their insights, and drive future innovation.

In this landscape, invisibility is power. The less friction a brand introduces, the more
likely it is to own the customer—without the customer ever thinking twice about it.

Thanks to these panel members:

Joe Berry, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods
Jim Kissane, TD
Taylor Mefford, Goldman Sachs
Eliot Buchanan, Priority